Let’s peep into the Nokia E72 and decipher if it has further raised the bar for business tools offered by the Finnish giant as the dainty device has reached our review desks. So far, Nokia’s E71 has received accolades worldwide for its highly acclaimed design and functionality, serving as a great business tool. Its successor, the Nokia E72, carried the onus to prove itself (rather to take its predecessor’s performance efficiency to a higher altitude) even before its release. The expectations set for E72 were sky high, and why not, after a great business tool like its predecessor, no Nokia user would settle for an inch lower standard.
Building on the success of the E71 (literally), the Nokia E72 follows in with a neck-to-neck design and looks. Yes, it’s almost similar looks-wise, apart from the lower part of the phone that does not sizzle sporting a flat metallic surface. With a steel body, the handset poses ultra-ruggedness. The form factor allowed the device to happily hop into our pockets and purses. The device features a broadened button arrangement with a wider QWERTY keypad as well as a roomy area around the navigation and other buttons on the front side.
Its volume control buttons turn the steel way. The device also improves on the head jack with a 3.5mm one. Besides, the navigation button is capable of turning into an optical pad. Yes, we could use the navigation button as a fully functional touch sensitive, optical trackpad. However, if you prefer the good ‘ol way of controlling the device then simply set this function in the ‘off mode.’
It is integrated with a QVGA, 320×240 pixels, 16m colors display and an improved sound chip. Some highlights of the E72 over its predecessor are 5 megapixel camera, 600MHz processor and also twice the ROM (E71 sports a 3.2 megapixel camera and is powered by 369MHz processor). With the speed enhanced to about two times, the performance is much better.
Now-a-days storage options coin in to form the important aspects of any device, the E72 has taken care of this as well. The device adds more storage which sums to about 250MB of internal memory. Elevating the storage bit further, it is expandable up to 16GB memory capacity. A 3.2MP camera may suffice some business users, but this phone definitely plans to offer something more. It features an improved 5MP sensor and also chucks in more resolution with 2592 x 1944.
We were certainly looking for an efficient performance. Gladly, the new device brings in the much required power punch with an improved and positively inclined performance. The user-interface is much better, thanks to the processor. The menu displays the essential icons and we could easily access some functions through the shortcut icons on the homescreen. Evidently, it’s the processing speed that impressed us.
We tried our hands at the Web Brower and it surely makes for one of the notable functionalities. The page load times were accelerated and also smooth. The browser also supports full Flash. The instant access to YouTube, MySpace and Facebook further would enthrall some of the social networkers like us. It’s a great feature for business users with a fluttering social networking butterfly within them. The device does claim a desktop-like experience. However, dissenting opinion, we didn’t experience a desktop feel. Should we blame the limitations of the screen size? However, the overall Web browsing experience was much better than some of the phones we have tried our hands at in the past. In addition, on the email front, contextualization of email has been added that allows you to add icons stating the server you are using.
Moving to the sound quality, the E72 is loud with a decent sound quality. We didn’t find any great improvements or an out-of-the-box music experience. With the likes of music phones offered by the company, we are sure they could have done a better job here. It supports GPS and also adds in the new digital compass to fiddle with.
The Video Player was decent and has nothing in specific that could grab our attention. We viewed some of our usual cool videos for a mediocre viewing experience. It isn’t integrated with support for DivX or XviD. So, forget catching those flicks. However, this could possibly be enabled with some additional purchases. Talking about the optical trackpad, it did lag in responding a few times but overall it worked fine. We did use it while a quick stroll through the images for swift viewing of images. However, we feel unlike a few functions, this particular feature has not helped place the device apart from the rest.
The camera upgrade is a highly appreciable function. A whooping 5MP sensor allowed us to take some amazing pictures. We could also capture some videos at 15 fps. However, the videos captured were above average. Don’t look for a dedicated camera button as there isn’t any, and the trackpad has to be used.
Business users can get a bunch of useful features such as font magnifier, multi-scanner, Wireless presenter, full version of Quick-office and Nokia email app. The Quick-office can be used for viewing as well as editing files. This new-generation device doesn’t include the latest fad, a TV out, while the Bluetooth version 2.0 with EDR has been included. Overall the device is more energy efficient than its predecessor and runs on the same BP-4L 1500mAh battery. It is claimed to offer about 12.5 hours of talktime and 20 days of standby time. As per our usage we found the battery life fairly decent.
Overall, the E72 sticks to its roots and has gone a few essential modifications which were required in the E71. Apart from that, a handful of new functions put together have resulted into the E72. Keeping aside the minor flaws, we give it a thumps up and a thumping rating of 9 on 10. Nokia packs in the protection for the device in the form of a leather case, alongside other in-box contents include charger, headset, USB cable, hand strap and user guide. The Nokia E72 is priced at around Rs. 23,000 in India.
